[mythtv-users] Lowest power HD frontend?

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Joseph Fry <joe at thefrys.com> wrote:
....
> TDP numbers are really almost worthless these days.

The TDP number is actually quite valuable, to the
builders of hardware solutions, but it is not what
some people think it is.

TDP == Thermal Design Power

It is the maximum power the device will use.  It is
not the power it will use all the time.  It is the power
that the vendor/user must be prepared to remove
(via some sort of cooling solution) to achieve
maximum utilization (since most chips will do
some sort of thermal throttling).  It is not at all
uncommon that a chip with a design TDP of X watts
will never (can never) actually use X watts.  It is
just the maximum that some design could use,
and allows the manufacturer to be assured their
solution will work.

Just as "Your actual mileage will vary" in autos,
"Your actual power consumption will vary" in CPUs.

Gary